Resources For Teachers

According to Wadsworth, D. D., Robinson, L. E., Beckham, K., and Webster, K. (2012), planned physical activity breaks have shown to significantly contribute to time spent in moderate-vigorous physical activity during the school day.

When? The best time to implement a classroom based physical activity break is in-between two indoor activities, such as moving from small group activities to a large group activity.

How? We always start our breaks with a recap of the rules (e.g. keeping hands to yourself, be safe, listen to your teacher, etc.). We divided our breaks into three components: warm-up, physical activity portion and cool-down. 

How Often? How often teachers incorporate the breaks depends on your preschool schedule. Our goal is once in the morning and once in the afternoon if the children can go outside and more if the children are indoor bound due to weather.

Teachers’ Role? As teachers, it is important to participate actively in the physical activity breaks and provide a model for the children to follow. By doing the activities teachers will encourage the children to keep moving, as well as, increase their daily physical activity.

InPACT is an on-going novel classroom-based physical activity intervention designed to improve the fitness of both teachers and students, while simultaneously enhancing learning. The study is being led by fellow Kinesiology Faculty Member, Dr. Rebecca Hasson and the Michigan Childhood Disparities Research Laboratory.  To Learn More  Click Here 

InPact Exercise Videos  Click Here

This National Institutes of Health application 1 R01 HL132979-01 entitled “A PATH (Promoting Activity and Trajectories of Health) for Children” will investigate the immediate and long-term effects of a motor skill intervention - the Children’s Health Activity Motor Program (CHAMP) - on motor competence, perceived motor competence, and physical activity in preschool-age children.

The Children’s Health Activity Motor Program (CHAMP), developed by Dr. Leah Robinson, provides a mastery climate wherein children choose motor skill goals and monitor their progress toward those goals by making decisions regarding their engagement, managing their emotions, focusing attention, and planning strategies in order to achieve their chosen goals. 

During the early childhood years, there are dramatic changes in self-regulation, such as the ability to control behavioral impulses, manage emotions, and maintain focus and attention. We posit that the CHAMP intervention achieves positive outcomes by improving self-regulation in children through enabling them to select and monitor their goals, thus increasing their motor skill competence, perceived competence, and ultimately physical activity.

The PATH grant is the Parent Award for this supplement. This supplement will examine the immediate (pre- to post-test) effects of the CHAMP intervention on self-regulation, and associations between  self-regulation and changes in motor competence, perceived motor competence, and PA

The goal of the Supplement is in response to FOA PA-16-334, Science of Behavior Change: Use-inspired basic research to optimize behavior change interventions and outcomes and to test self-regulation as a putative intervention target, or mechanism of action. 

Physical inactivity in children is a major public health risk factor and national health objective. Specifically, ethnic-minorities and low income children engage in less physical activity and experience an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The current school day physical activity guideline set forth by the Centers for Disease Control is 60 minutes (1 hour) or more per day. This includes aerobic activites as well as bone and muscle strengthening. Recent findings have also put forth a recommendation for preschoolers of 3 hours per day, or approximately 15 min/hour(Pate et al. 2015).